Operation Sealion (Unternehmen Seelöwe)
Immediately after the defeat of France in June 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered his generals to organize the invasion of Britain. The invasion plan was given the code name Operation Sealion. The objective was to land 160,000 German soldiers along a forty-mile coastal stretch of south-east England.
Within a few weeks the Germans had assembled a large armada of vessels, including 2,000 barges in German, Belgian and French harbours. However, Hitler's generals were very worried about the damage that the Royal Air Force could inflict on the German Army during the invasion. Hitler therefore agreed to their request that the invasion should be postponed until the British airforce had been destroyed.
On the 12th August the German airforce began its mass bomber attacks on British radar stations, aircraft factories and fighter airfields. During these raids radar stations and airfields were badly damaged and twenty-two RAF planes were destroyed. This attack was followed by daily raids on Britain. This was the beginning of what became known as the Battle of Britain.
Although plans for an invasion of Britain were drawn up Adolf Hitler was never very enthusiastic about them and they were eventually abandoned on October 12, 1940. Instead, Hitler attempted to batter Britain into submission by organising a sustained night-bombing campaign.
The projected invasion on Britain included:
- Army Group A (6 divisions) invading Kent via the areas near Ramsgate, Folkstone and Bexhill
- Army Group B (4 divisions) invading Sussex and Hampshire via the area around Brighton and the Isle of Wight.
- Army Group C (3 divisions) invading Dorset via Lyme Bay
From Kent, Army Group A would advance to south-east London and then to Malden and St. Albans north of London.
From Sussex/Hampshire, the 4 divisions of Army Group A would advance to the west of London and meet up with the other 6 divisions of Army Group A, thus encircling London. Other parts of the group would head towards Gloucester and the River Severn region.
From Dorset, Army Group B would advance to Bristol.
The whole plan relied on Germany having complete control of the English Channel, which, in turn meant that Germany had to have control of the skies so that the Royal Air Force could not attack German ships crossing the Channel. Hence victory in the Battle of Britain was an integral part of the plan.
The problems of an invasion were known to all three branches of the German military:
Control of the Channel would be needed
Control of the skies would be needed
Good weather would be needed
